re: Jury Duty - have any of you been….

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Prosecutor and judge spoke to us after the trial was over, and stated there was a prior history with this guy that wasn't admissible in this court case.

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Such bullshite. That should be admissible.

I’ve been summoned twice but never picked. My mom was on a suspected serial killers trial once. He was a suspect in I think around 15 murders or missing people cases. They had found a 19 year old buried on his property and charged him with that one.

I was around 10 years old and remember her being excited about the possibility of serving on a jury. Little did she know she would be picked for that case. She was fully sequestered for a week or so. They eventually convicted him. He was sentenced to life but was already serving life in another state for molestation I think.

She never wanted anything to do with a jury after that. Said it was stressful having to come to a verdict.

I was selected for jury duty on an armed robbery and assault case several years ago, even served as the jury foreman.

The defendant was a kid, about 17-19 years old. He was a skinny kid. The prosecutor alleged this kid went into a video rental/tanning salon early one morning about 8:00 or 9:00 AM and robbed it. In the process they say he pistol whipped the lady who worked there. He allegedly took like $300 or something.

The case against him was built on the lady’s testimony. She picked him out of a lineup from juvenile offenders. She said he came in wearing a red hoodie pulled up over his head and had a semiautomatic pistol he beat her with. There was some grainy video that didn’t show the attacker’s face but you could see his forearm because he had his sleeves pulled up. The forearm was quite large, far larger than this kids. In fact this kid’s forearms were downright bony. It was patently obvious whoever’s forearm was on the tape, it wasn’t this kids.

When it came time the defense, they called First his very old grandmother, I think she said she was a “retired Sunday School teacher”. She testified her grandson lived with her and after she made him breakfast his boss came and picked him up to go to work. Then they brought his boss up to testify. He testified he picked the kid up at like 6:00 AM and drove straight to B’ham to do construction at a lawyer’s house. He said the kid was with him until he took him home that night. Then they called the lawyer whose house the kid had worked on all day. He testified he was there all day and so was the kid. The defense also pointed out the police searched the grandmother’s house and never found a red hoodie, pistol, or the cash.

When we got into the jury room everyone was unanimous there was no need for deliberation. The vote was 12-0 for innocent.

What sucks is this poor kid had been sitting in jail for however long because his grandmother could not afford bail. I left the courtroom shocked this even made it to trial.

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Yes. There is a man on death row right now due, in part, to my vote on the jury.

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And sadly, thanks to the joke of our “justice system”, there’s a realistic chance he’ll outlive you.

Never been picked. Registered to vote at 18.

Called several times, never picked.

Yep - capital murder. We put a 17 year old away for life without parole for murder. It lasted a week and was one of the hardest weeks of my life. There was nothing rewarding about the experience.

I've only ever been on the grand jury. It wasn't a terrible experience, moved quickly so it wasn't boring, and was kind of eye opening as to all the shite that goes on around a given area. All-in-all it was an interesting experience that I believe everyone should have to experience.